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"Federal Bay Cleanup Efforts Lag, Group Claims"

"Federally funded efforts to curtail farm pollution of the Chesapeake Bay are falling short, and recent spending cuts by Congress cast doubt on the efforts' ultimate success, an environmental group said Monday."

"The Chesapeake Bay Foundation said farmers planted only a fraction of the stream-side trees last year than they should have to meet goals set for creating forested buffers to reduce polluted runoff from fields, feedlots and pastures.

Maryland and the other five states in the bay watershed have pledged collectively to establish 185,000 acres of new forested buffers on farmland by 2025, the Annapolis-based group said. To meet that goal, 14,200 acres need to be planted annually, it added, but only 2,600 acres were established last year, the lowest number since the late 1990s."